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Saturday, November 26, 2016

Americans like Medicare the way it is, but that won't stop Paul Ryan from killing it.

We can’t talk about Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plans
without first pointing out how he brought up “saving” the program; with
a lie. That should be a serious warning. Ryan’s plan must be pretty bad if he has to manufacture an even worse scenario to sell it:

Ryan said he wanted to address Medicare’s “serious problems”
… argued that Medicare’s financial problems were caused by the healthcare
reform law—though actually the ACA extended the projected solvency of
Medicare’s Part A Hospital trust fund.

That lie is so big even the media is bringing it up all the
time.

Premium-Support: It’s important to know that regular old Medicare
pays a fixed amount, and that amount determines what the GOP’s more privatized
alternative, Medicare Advantage charges. Without that fixed price, Medicare
Advantage would be open to dramatic price increases by doctors and hospitals, where skies
the limit.

Republicans have already hit one road block, but like
everything they do, they’ll plow through that too:

Modern Health Care: A Health Affairs study last year found that Medicare
Advantage plans keep their provider payment rates down by pegging them to
traditional Medicare rates … plans benefit from Medicare’s rule that out-of-network
providers cannot charge more than Medicare rates. “The only way Medicare
Advantage plans are competitive with traditional Medicare is that there is a
public option and there is price regulation that limits balance billing by
non-network providers,” said Dr. Robert Berenson, a co-author of the Health
Affairs study and former member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.

Remember how Republicans blew a gasket over the Democrats supposedly ramming
ObamaCare down our throats in just one year, and without a Republican vote? Well,
I think they changed their minds on that…

Dr. Tom Price—a top contender to become HHS secretary—said
that congressional Republicans will push ahead with a Medicare overhaul within
the first six to eight months of 2017, and that the Senate will pass it through
an expedited budget reconciliation process that avoids a likely Democratic
filibuster.

Authoritarian know-it-alls: Sure the public is against fundamentally
doing away with Medicare, but as we’ve seen in Wisconsin, ideology and arrogant
power “Trumps” what the public actually wants:

According to a mid-2015 Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 70%
of Americans support keeping Medicare as it is today, with only 26% supporting
a shift to premium support. Those percentages were similar among Democrats and
Republicans. Just 18% of seniors supported turning Medicare into a
premium-support program.While some observers expressed surprise that Republicans
want to leap into the perilous politics of Medicare reform after Trump’s narrow
election victory, Tom Scully, who served as CMS administrator under President
George W. Bush, was enthusiastic. “If they’re going to reform the ACA and
Medicaid, absolutely they’ll do premium support, and they should, it’s the
right thing to do,” he said. “They might get killed, but I don’t think they’re
going to find it that politically difficult.”

NOTE: I'm still waiting for the first reporter to ask Paul Ryan how he expects seniors with diminishing mental capacity to shop for insurance and navigate new policies yearly. It happens to all of us, and for Ryan to ignore that flaw is irresponsible.

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One Man's Challenge to a Party Bent on Destruction

Politics: Just a guy tired of "compromising." Stop encouraging Republicans when it comes to their failed ideology.
I was once a liberal radio talk host. Played co-host to Vicki McKenna, a complete liar who can't can't stop filling the airwaves with mindless babble.
I'm someone who enjoys the the painful smiles of conservatives as they struggle to deny the avalanche of facts tumbling their way. They seem preoccupied with spelling and grammar.
Real Estate: I also hosted a real estate radio show.
Currently dabbling in part time work.